| Abstract: | The mineral marthozite, a uranyl selenite, has been characterised by Raman spectroscopy at 298 K. The bands at 812 and 797 cm?1 were assigned to the symmetric stretching modes of the (UO2)2+ and (SeO3)2? units, respectively. These values gave the calculated U? O bond lengths in uranyl of 1.799 and/or 1.814 Å. Average U? O bond length in uranyl is 1.795 Å, inferred from the X‐ray single crystal structure analysis of marthozite by Cooper and Hawthorne. The broad band at 869 cm?1 was assigned to the ν3 antisymmetric stretching mode of the (UO2)2+ (calculated U? O bond length 1.808 Å). The band at 739 cm?1 was attributed to the ν3 antisymmetric stretching vibration of the (SeO3)2? units. The ν4 and the ν2 vibrational modes of the (SeO3)2? units were observed at 424 and 473 cm?1. Bands observed at 257, and 199 and 139 cm?1 were assigned to OUO bending vibrations and lattice vibrations, respectively. O? H···O hydrogen bond lengths were inferred using Libowiztky's empirical relation. The infrared spectrum of marthozite was studied for complementation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
